Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the East Asia Summit

Kuala Lumpur, 14 December 2005

WE , the Heads of State/Government of the Member Countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, People's Republic of China, Republic of India, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand, on the occasion of the historic First East Asia Summit on 14 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;

RECALLING the decision of the 10th ASEAN Summit and supported by the 8th ASEAN Plus Three Summit held on 29 November 2004 in Vientiane, Lao PDR, to convene the First East Asia Summit in Malaysia in 2005;

REITERATING our commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and other recognised principles of international law;

ACKNOWLEDGING that in a rapidly changing international environment, our economies and societies have become increasingly interlinked and interdependent;

REALISING the increasing range of challenges facing the world and the need for concerted regional and global efforts to respond to these challenges;

RECOGNISING our shared interests in achieving peace, security and prosperity in East Asia and the world at large;

DESIROUS of creating a peaceful environment by further enhancing cooperation and strengthening the existing bonds of friendship among our countries in keeping with the principles of equality, partnership, consultation and consensus thereby contributing to peace, security and economic prosperity in the region and the world at large;

CONVINCED of the importance of strengthening bilateral and multilateral interactions and cooperation among the participating countries of the East Asia Summit and the world at large on issues of common interest and concern in order to enhance peace and economic prosperity;

REITERATING the conviction that the effective functioning of multilateral systems will continue to be indispensable for advancing economic development;

RECOGNISING that this region is today a source of dynamism for the world economy;

SHARING the view that the East Asia Summit could play a significant role in community building in this region;

FURTHER RECOGNISING the need to support efforts to build a strong ASEAN Community which will serve as a solid foundation for our common peace and prosperity;

DO HEREBY DECLARE:

FIRST , that we have established the East Asia Summit as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia.

SECOND , that the efforts of the East Asia Summit to promote community building in this region will be consistent with and reinforce the realisation of the ASEAN Community, and will form an integral part of the evolving regional architecture.

THIRD , that the East Asia Summit will be an open, inclusive, transparent and outward-looking
forum in which we strive to strengthen global norms and universally recognised values with ASEAN as the driving force working in partnership with the other participants of the East Asia Summit.

FOURTH , we will focus, among others, on the following:

Fostering strategic dialogue and promoting cooperation in political and security issues to ensure that our countries can live at peace with one another and with the world at large in a just, democratic and harmonious environment;

Promoting development, financial stability, energy security, economic integration and growth, eradicating poverty and narrowing the development gap in East Asia, through technology transfer and infrastructure development, capacity building, good governance and humanitarian assistance and promoting financial links, trade and investment expansion and liberalisation; and

Promoting deeper cultural understanding, people-to-people contact and enhanced cooperation in uplifting the lives and well-being of our peoples in order to foster mutual trust and solidarity as well as promoting fields such as environmental protection, prevention of infectious diseases and natural disaster mitigation.

FIFTH , that:

Participation in the East Asia Summit will be based on the criteria for participation established by ASEAN;

The East Asia Summit will be convened regularly;

The East Asia Summit will be hosted and chaired by an ASEAN Member Country that assumes the ASEAN Chairmanship and held back-to-back with the annual ASEAN Summit; and

The modalities of the East Asia Summit will be reviewed by ASEAN and all other participating countries of the East Asia Summit.

SIGNED at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the Fourteenth Day of December in the Year Two Thousand and Five.